Mari closed her eyes, moved her lips as she counted to ten, then looked at Kira again. "All right. We'd better get moving." She signaled to the driver and the coach surged into motion, the cavalry once more escorting it.

Kira hunched back again as the coach passed through the crowd of onlookers who were calling out to the daughter. Mari always insisted that Kira's father had been her equal in all things, had been right there beside Kira's mother the whole way in changing the world. But to the people Lady Mari was the daughter, the leader, the one who trailed myths and legends like a brilliant garment. And Kira, measuring herself against her mother, had long ago miserably realized that the myths and legends were not far short of reality.

Her mother, after taking some deep breaths to brace herself, leaned out the window and waved and touched hands with people as the coach passed them, the crowd calling her name over and over again. Mari kept it up until they had cleared the crowd, then sagged back into her seat.

"Why do you do it?" Kira asked her mother. "I've always been able to tell it's hard on you."

"It's important to them," Mari replied, looking worn out. "They deserve attention and concern. Just like everyone. Except this world, apparently. The people from Urth aren't going to share anything with us?"

"Nothing important. Just stuff that Jason called toys. Partly because they want to cheat us, and partly because of some law to keep our culture from being disrupted."

Her mother glared out the window of the coach. "At least now we know why the technical questions we ask Urth rarely get answered in any useful way. Yet these people seem very interested in learning our secrets."

Alain nodded. "You showed Mechanics and Mages what could be done when they worked together."

"We showed that," Mari corrected him. "When we survived all of those attempts to kill one or both of us. But if the Great Guilds had ever cooperated that way, this world could never have been freed. We're being warned that Urth's pursuit of knowledge about Mages holds danger. We have to find out why. Especially since they're withholding their own secrets from us. The Great Guilds kept us from changing so they'd remain in control. Why is Urth doing it?"

"From the way Jason talked, it sounded like they think they're protecting us or something," Kira said.

"As if we're children?" Her mother looked at Kira. "And, yes, I know how much you've chafed against the limits put on you in the name of protecting you. But the goal wasn't to keep you unchanging. It was to help you grow, with the certainty that the day would come when you would make all of your own decisions."

Kira sighed. "Mother, I'm sorry about earlier. Even though we've argued sometimes—"

"Sometimes?" her father asked, keeping his voice even.